Effects of land use on catchment runoff and soil loss in the sub-humid Ethiopian highlands

Dagnew, Dessalegn C.; Guzmán, Christian D.; Akale, Adugnaw T.; Tebebu, Tigist Y.; Zegeye, Assefa D.; Mekuria, Wolde; Tilahun, Seifu A.; Steenhuis, Tammo S.

doi:10.1016/j.ecohyd.2017.07.004

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Valley‐bottom gullies are a subject of great concern for land managers and scientists, who observe that rehabilitation attempts for such gullies often fail or even have aggravating effects. The issue has recently been raised in subhumid northwestern Ethiopia, where intensive soil and water conservation activities are not paying off in terms of gully stabilization (Zegeye et al ., 2016; Dagnew et al ., 2017; Addisie et al ., 2018; Zegeye et al ., 2018a; Mhiret et al ., 2020). This has been related to the adaptation of methods developed for the largely semi‐arid northeastern part of Ethiopia (Tebebu et al ., 2010).…”

Section: Gully Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gully prevention and control: Techniques, failures and effectiveness

Frankl

Nyssen

Vanmaercke

et al. 2021

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gully erosion is a major environmental problem, posing significant threats to sustainable development. However, insights on techniques to prevent and control gullying are scattered and incomplete, especially regarding failure rates and effectiveness. This review aims to address these issues and contribute to more successful gully prevention and control strategies by synthesizing the data from earlier studies. Preventing gully formation can be done through land use change, applying soil and water conservation techniques or by targeted measures in concentrated flow zones. The latter include measures that increase topsoil resistance and vegetation barriers. Vegetation barriers made of plant residues have the advantage of being immediately effective in protecting against erosion, but have a short life expectancy as compared to barriers made of living vegetation. Once deeply incised, the development of gullies may be controlled by diverting runoff away from the channel, but this comes at the risk of relocating the problem. Additional measures such as headcut filling, channel reshaping and headcut armouring can also be applied. To control gully channels, multiple studies report on the use of check dams and/or vegetation. Reasons for failures of these techniques depend on runoff and sediment characteristics and cross‐sectional stability and micro‐environment of the gully. In turn, these are controlled by external forcing factors that can be grouped into (i) geomorphology and topography, (ii) climate and (iii) the bio‐physical environment. The impact of gully prevention and control techniques is addressed, especially regarding their effect on headcut retreat and network development, the trapping of sediment by check dams and reduction of catchment sediment yield. Overall, vegetation establishment in gully channels and catchments plays a key role in gully prevention and control. Once stabilized, gullies may turn into rehabilitated sites of lush vegetation or cropland, making the return on investment to prevent and control gullies high. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

show abstract

Section: Gully Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gully prevention and control: Techniques, failures and effectiveness

Frankl

Nyssen

Vanmaercke

et al. 2021

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Cultivation of Alpine grassland soils in China caused decreased SOC by 25, 39, and 55% for 8, 16, and 41 years of cultivation, respectively, which caused more sensitive to erosion and chemical changes of phosphorus dynamics [19]. In the sub-humid Ethiopian highlands, Dagnew et al [20] suggested that lower soil disturbance and increase ground could reduce runoff and soil loss in this area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Controlling Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration of Highland Agricultural Areas in the Mae Chaem Basin, Northern Thailand

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the effect of the environment, crop types, and land management practices on the organic carbon sequestration of top soil is crucial for adopting management strategies in highland agricultural areas. The objectives of this study are: (1) to estimate top soil organic carbon density (SOCD) of different crop types and (2) to analyze the factors controlling top SOCD in highland agricultural areas. The top soil layers from 0 to 30 cm depths were collected from the Mae Chaem basin, Northern Thailand. The results showed that the highest top SOCD was found soil used for growing upland rice, which contained an average of 58.71 Mg C ha−1. A significant difference between the top SOCD was detected between areas where minimum tillage and conventional tillage of various crops, with average of values 59.17 and 41.33 Mg C ha−1, respectively, for areas growing strawberries; 61.14 and 37.58 Mg C ha−1, respectively, for cabbage, and 71.15 and 39.55 Mg C ha−1, respectively, for maize. At higher elevation, the top SOCD was high, which may be due to high clay content and low temperature. Increased use of chemical fertilizers lead to increases in top SOCD, resulting in increased crop yields. Elevation, bulk density, N and K2O fertilizers were the main factors controlling the top SOCD at all sites.

show abstract

“…The studies that have been carried out in the Lake Tana basin focused on modeling the sediment load, lake level fluctuation and water balance, and runoff volumes and identifying the erosion hot spot areas, analyzing runoff processes through conceptual hydrological modeling, and hydrological and suspended sediment modeling [3,16,[25][26][27]. Studies outside the Lake Tana basin found that infiltration furrows decreased direct runoff and sediment load but not sediment concentrations in the first three years of observation when gullies were present [23,28,29]. Another study 200 km south of Lake Tana [30] found that the long-term impact of conservation practices was minimal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Soil Depth and Topography on the Effectiveness of Conservation Practices on Discharge and Soil Loss in the Ethiopian Highlands

Akale

Dagnew

Belete

et al. 2017

Land

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Restoration of degraded landscapes through the implementation of soil and water conservation practices is considered a viable option to increase agricultural production by enhancing ecosystems. However, in the humid Ethiopian highlands, little information is available on the impact of conservation practices despite wide scale implementation. The objective of this research was to document the effect of conservation practices on discharge and sediment concentration and load in watersheds that have different soil depths and topography. Precipitation, discharge, and sediment concentration were measured from 2010 to 2012 in two watersheds in close proximity and located in the Lake Tana basin, Ethiopia: Tikur-Wuha and Guale watersheds. The Tikur-Wuha watershed has deep soils and a gentle slope stream channel. The Guale watershed has shallow soils and a steep slope stream channel. In early 2011, the local community installed upland conservation measures consisting of stone and soil bunds, waterways, cutoff drains, infiltration furrows, gully rehabilitation, and enclosures. The results show that conservation practices marginally decreased direct runoff in both watersheds and increased base flow in the Tikur-Wuha watershed. Average sediment concentration decreased by 81% in Tikur-Wuha and 45% in Guale. The practices intended to increase infiltration were most effective in the Tikur-Wuha watershed because the deep soil could store the infiltrated water and release it over a longer period of time after the rainy season than the steeper Guale watershed with shallow soils.

show abstract

Effects of land use on catchment runoff and soil loss in the sub-humid Ethiopian highlands

Cited by 25 publications

References 28 publications

Gully prevention and control: Techniques, failures and effectiveness

Gully prevention and control: Techniques, failures and effectiveness

Factors Controlling Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration of Highland Agricultural Areas in the Mae Chaem Basin, Northern Thailand

Impact of Soil Depth and Topography on the Effectiveness of Conservation Practices on Discharge and Soil Loss in the Ethiopian Highlands

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About